 Topic: The new album - The Pursuit |
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jazzo
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| Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:16 pm |
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jazzo
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From Music Week
| Quote: | Meanwhile, Jamie Cullum’s fifth album, The Pursuit, debuts at number 42, becoming his highest charting set yet Stateside.
His first two albums missed out on chart action there, while 2003’s Twentysomething reached number 83, and 2005’s Catching Tales reached number 49. Cullum’s increasing across the board appeal appears to have been accompanied by a slip in his core jazz audience however – The Pursuit ranks only seventh on the contemporary jazz chart, while Catching Tales topped the chart, and Twentysomething reached number two. |
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| Sat Mar 13, 2010 8:30 pm |
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MMK
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| jazzo wrote: | | This number of different versions is f-wording ridiculous! |
Yep. I'll copy my comments from the "Versions of The Pursuit" thread here...
Same reason anyone does that - to induce fans to buy essentially the same product multiple times.
When I was a kid - this may still be a common practice, at that - back in the pre-digital, LP album days, your favorite artist would release a "greatest hits" album, always with ONE new song you HAD to have, even though you had all the rest of the tracks already on the original LPs (and back then, there was NO way to get that song otherwise, unless you were lucky enough to know someone who'd bought the "greatest hits" album and they copied that song onto a cassette tape for you, when that become possible). The current "multiple versions" practice, with different content for different countries, even for different vendors, is just the same-old same-old, multiplied for the marketing possibilities of the digital age.
Phooey. But everyone does it, so can't be too angry with Jamie.
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| Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:16 pm |
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jazzo
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Whoever did the Vanity Fair review doesn't get it 
| Quote: | Jamie Cullum The Pursuit (Decca)
Since 1999, Jamie Cullum has been trying to get a foothold in the post When Harry Met Sally world of contemporary jazz with little luck. He is a talented piano player. His 21st century adaptations of jazz standards sound fine... if you have your grandparents over for dinner. But—we’ve all heard this before—he's just no Harry Connick, Jr. There are so few names in contemporary jazz, that Cullum has been the de facto Next Big Thing. But, until he scores a seminal movie, the 30-year-old Brit will sheepishly hide in Connick’s shadows.
Verdict: Skip it |
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| Wed Mar 17, 2010 1:43 pm |
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MMK
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^^^ That is SO ridiculous!  The comparison to Connick last made SOME sense around 2003 - now it's totally irrelevant. That reviewer is an idiot, and deaf to boot.
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| Wed Mar 17, 2010 2:50 pm |
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danasaurus
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| MMK wrote: | | ^^^ That reviewer is an idiot, and deaf to boot. |
I agree 100%!
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| Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:49 am |
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jazzo
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From here
| Quote: | | Where this young British pop singer excels, however, is when he's singing his own material. Songs like I'm All Over It, Wheels, Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down, Mixtape, Music Is Through and We Run Things have a fresh sound and reach back to the Index-JAMIE-CULLUM1 British pop invasion of the early 1980s. Cullum has a hip, knowing vocal style that sounds effortless. Sample the tracks I just mentioned and see what you think. He also plays a mean electric piano, as evidenced on We Run Things. |
The rest of the blog post is interesting too |
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| Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:04 pm |
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MMK
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^^^Interesting. At least this blogger appreciates Jamie's original material, but as other comments in the post reveal, he is among those who don't like Jamie's interpretations of the standards.
If I may be iconoclastic for a moment, the thing is, I can actually understand some of the reasons why Jamie doesn't appeal to some listeners. Now, before I say this, let me remind everyone how much I love Jamie's music - long-time PNers most likely know that. But taken strictly objectively, Jamie doesn't have a conventionally "pretty" voice; it's rather rough, actually, and I can understand listeners more accustomed to more conventional voices being put off, if that's the primary thing that appeals to them, by Jamie's performances of the standards.
Of course, they're missing everything that's amazing about Jamie in the process, but they don't know that, and probably, if they just don't like his voice, they don't care. But that's OK.
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| Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:55 pm |
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jazzo
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| And there's plenty of true jazz singers who don't have conventionally pretty voices - Kurt Elling plus the 2 singers I heard this weekend to name a few. |
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| Sun Mar 21, 2010 9:07 pm |
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MMK
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I guess the common thread might be sheer musicality: Kurt Elling, yeah, the quintessential jazz singer - undeniably, gloriously musical, in a way popsters with prettier voices sometimes are not (don't ask me to name names, I feel like being nice today!).
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| Sun Mar 21, 2010 10:55 pm |
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hairymaclary
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| MMK wrote: |
If I may be iconoclastic for a moment, the thing is, I can actually understand some of the reasons why Jamie doesn't appeal to some listeners. Now, before I say this, let me remind everyone how much I love Jamie's music - long-time PNers most likely know that. But taken strictly objectively, Jamie doesn't have a conventionally "pretty" voice; it's rather rough, actually, and I can understand listeners more accustomed to more conventional voices being put off, if that's the primary thing that appeals to them, by Jamie's performances of the standards.
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Oh, I completely agree with you. That's one of the reasons I love him. It's nothing special to sound conventional - what's better, in my book, is that raw edge that Jamie has. There's a lot more emotion and energy in one lyric sung by him than a whole song by most other people in the charts!
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| Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:54 am |
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MMK
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^^^So true: Jamie sings with such conviction and sincerity; he's not just singing notes, he's telling a story with each song. This comes across in his recordings, but is even better appreciated seeing him live: you can always see how very much Jamie just loves music, and how as a consequence he infuses so much emotion into his performances.
Which brings me back to the topic of this thread, the new album, specifically the DVD included with the U.S. deluxe edition. Watched it for the first time a few days ago, and I'm blown away by the live solo performances of some of the album's songs taped at the Oak Room. Exceptional. (And really brings home what I passed up in not going to the show there a couple of weeks back, but at least there's this terrific DVD.)
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| Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:16 am |
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jazzo
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From the Christian Science Monitor
| Quote: | Talent to spare
Diminutive British singer Jamie Cullum is an outsized talent much too big to fit in a box. Neither truly jazz nor pop, he's a supercharged and wholly original hybrid of the two. His eclectic new album, "The Pursuit," proves the point, with unique takes on a few jazz standards (two!), exciting remakes of Rihanna's dance-floor smash "Don't Stop the Music," and a guest shot from the Count Basie Orchestra. Oh, yes, and a heart-wrenching version of Sondheim's "Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down" closes out the festivities. If Frank Sinatra and Amy Winehouse had a baby... |
Title mixup - 
Last sentence - |
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| Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:54 pm |
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MMK
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Hmmm, I didn't know Sondheim had also written a song called "Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down"!
That last sentence IS hilarious, but I can kind of see where the writer is coming from!
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| Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:02 pm |
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hairymaclary
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| MMK wrote: | ^^^So true: Jamie sings with such conviction and sincerity; he's not just singing notes, he's telling a story with each song. This comes across in his recordings, but is even better appreciated seeing him live: you can always see how very much Jamie just loves music, and how as a consequence he infuses so much emotion into his performances.
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Just to go back to this for a second - I'm sitting writing an incredibly dull assignment on the current state of popular music (so forgive me for being a bit OT for a second - I'm BORED!), and keeping myself from going mad by listening not to Cheryl Cole, JLS, Dizzee Rascal etc as I probably should be, but instead to Geoff Gascoyne's Keep It To Yourself, because it's much better  I was just thinking, on listening to Love Won't Let Me Wait, about the raw edge on Jamie's voice again. I've had to listen to so many 'sexy' pop songs for this essay, and not one of them is remotely as sexy as this one is. All those ones in the charts, I listen and think 'Oh look, another 'sexy' song because they know that teenage girls will fall at their feet and spend their money on it' whereas Jamie...well, he sounds so much more like he means it. If Jamie sang 'I love you', it'd mean 'I love you'. When most pop singers sing 'I love you'? 'I love the money and fame this is bringing me' more like! And I think, slightly more on-topic, that that's why I love The Pursuit (and the others too, of course) in general - it's got a sincerity that the charts is seriously lacking these days 
Right, back to work then I suppose...
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"sporadic bursts of music and tonnes of food" - sounds familiar!
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| Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:48 pm |
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jazzo
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| Thu Mar 25, 2010 3:14 pm |
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jazzo
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From Entertainment Weekly
| Quote: | Culllum kicks things off with "Just One of Those Things," which seems intended as a message to his fans: The "fling" he's saying goodbye to is...jazz. Sure enough, the rest of the album bears zero resemblance to that transitional opener. Instead, think Ben Folds' brand of guitarless, percussive piano rock, with an occasional house beat thrown in. The Michael Buble-averse among us are in for a very pleasant revelation. B+ -- Chris Willman
Download these: Rihanna cover Don't Stop the Music, Club-ready Music is Through |
I wouldn't agree that Jamie's saying goodbye to jazz completely, but still nice to see a positive review. FWIW, Entertainment Weekly doesn't give many reviews higher than a B+ |
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| Sat Mar 27, 2010 7:16 pm |
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jazzo
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From the Caller-Times (Texas)
| Quote: | Jamie Cullum looks like the spiky-haired kid who always sat in the back of the class and had the reputation for being a bit of a troublemaker. Yet he still manages to shrewdly belie his outward appearance by skillfully covering standards as well as composing his own jazz-influenced songs that have helped win him win critical acclaim. He returns with his latest, “The Pursuit” (Verve/Forecast), which continues to exhibit his penchant for jazz with an attitude.
Cullum kicks off the album with a finely poised version of Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things” that skillfully straddles the line between classy and gritty. He gives the cool “If I Ruled the World” the same treatment, and his tenuously tender reading of Stephen Sondheim’s “Not While I’m Around” is nothing short of brilliant. But Cullum also scores points for his originals, as his restlessness on “I’m All Over It” and “Wheels” make him sound like a cross between Harry Connick Jr. and Billy Joel. But the best of his originals, “I Think, I Love” benefits not only from a vintage piano bar arrangement, but also the fact that Cullum effortlessly ingratiates himself to anyone who has been caught in a tug of war between their head and their heart.
Cullum, not content with the rules, and perhaps even bored with them, shows an adventurousness and willingness to take risks has not only helped him create another engaging jazz/pop collection. It easily moves him up to the head of the class. |
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| Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:35 pm |
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jazzo
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| Another interesting review here |
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| Fri Apr 16, 2010 6:27 pm |
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Nostalgic
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Seriously, some people just DON'T get it. I seriously do not know how some of those reviews are actually taken seriously - and by some rather prestigious, and other not so much, websites and newspapers! It drives me mad when people bash others just for the sake of being different, and I feel that that's exactly what's happening. Because Jamie has had so many great reviews, let's bash him a bit. Oh, co'mon. But it's always this way! I'm not saying that some people didn't actually mean it, people's tastes in music are different and I respect that, but certain remarks are just too stupid to even take into consideration.
Comparing Jamie to HCJ was, some 6 or 7 odd years ago, reasonable. But nowadays, you just can't do that. You'd might as well compare The Beatles to Jonas Brothers, which has happened.  It's just not happening, it's not a fair comparison, it is just a silly excuse to show the world how clever you are. I remember when Jamie was compared to Michael Bublé - even then, I thought it wasn't right. They're so incredibly different! Bublé has his style and Jamie has his OWN style. So that MB vs. JC was utter b*llocks. It upset me greatly.
It's about time people start to regard Jamie as an artist who mixes different music genres to create his own music - 'prostituting it to his evil ends', as he once put it  - he's not your average musician, he is unique and oh, so very talented!, and people must realise that in order to mix genres and create some wonderful and inspirational music, it takes a true genius. And Jamie is a genius, no matter what other people say - so many have tried to pull it off and failed miserably, but Jamie makes it sound so easy and efortless, whilst revolutioning the music world at the same time.
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| Sat Apr 17, 2010 10:16 am |
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